All White Walls

As soon as we decided to completely renovate the whole house, I knew that I wanted to paint all of the walls white. Friends and family all questioned this decision, it will look cold, it’s not very homely, it will be dirty in no time, were their comments.

I think it came about because I got so fed up of waiting to change the painted coloured walls when hubby point blank refused and was stuck with this:

The brown wall was left over from the days of a brown leather sofa and a feature wall. Hubby refused to paint the walls because we were in the middle of an extension. We painted the fireplace in preparation for our new grey colour scheme and had to put up with the colour clash! In hind sight, he was right, but it was an embarrassment when we had visitors!

I always felt the house was dark prior to the new extension, (see here) , so thought the white walls would help to bounce the light around more. I was also worried that if I did choose a colour for the walls, I wouldn’t be able to get exactly the colour I wanted, maybe choose a shade too dark or too light, which would bug me, and as hubby does all of the decorating, he wouldn’t be too chuffed at having to repaint if I hated the colour. I know you can get little pots of paint to try, but a small patch on the wall doesn’t give you a true idea of how the whole wall will look.

Love how clean and crisp the walls look!

The contrast with the grey fireplace looks great.

We wanted to create a feeling of openness and the white walls do this perfectly, connecting the spaces into one seamless room and flowing from one space to the next. The white walls and ceilings also blend seamlessly, adding to the overall openness.

The wood floors, doors and skirting help in achieving the ‘scandinavian’ feel that we wanted. At the moment, we are loving the all white look. One of the best things about it, is that if there are any marks or bumps it’s easy just to go round with a paintbrush and touch them up! We used Leyland trade paint in matt white,which is available from Screwfix. Trade paint is thicker than most other paints and covers really well. Even on newly plastered walls, we could have got away with just one coat, but hubby, being the perfectionist he is, did two coats!

Even though I love this all white look, that hasn’t stopped me looking at other paint effects! I am very tempted to go to the dark side and paint one wall in Farrow and Ball ‘Downpipe’, when we decorate the dining room.

Image source – Pinterest

I also love these stripes to accentuate shelves, which is something I might try in one of our spare rooms.

Image source – Instagram @caffeineandcacti

This is a gorgeous look – half white, half blush pink wall.

Image source – Instagram @caffeineandcacti

I know dark walls are really fashionable now, but I always like to think about how long I will be happy with something before I go ahead and change things, and when I look to the future, I can still see myself with predominantly white walls!

Let me know what you think about all white walls or if you’ve gone over to the dark side?